James Paxton accidentally tipped pitches in Yankees’ loss to Astros

James Paxton was tipping his pitches Wednesday. The Yankees lefty said that Carlos Beltran came up to him Saturday and told him that he was showing what was coming.

That allowed the Astros to know what to expect from Paxton, who said it has been a problem with his knuckle curveball.

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“I thought I was covering it enough but apparently when they were taking their lead at second base they could see my knuckle up on the curveball so they knew if I was going to be going soft or hard,” Paxton said. “So, we’re going to be doing some things to change that up so they can’t see the knuckle there.”

James Paxton apparently did not cover his knuckle enough. (Rob Carr/Getty)

The lefty was hit hard on Wednesday and was looking back at that start as he prepares to pitch Tuesday in his first Yankees-Red Sox game. Part of that was analyzing mechanics, but also getting mentally prepared for the big rivalry game.

“I think just kind of mentally wrapping my head around it and dealing with my own expectations of myself and being here,” Paxton said. “I think just getting that under control and realizing it’s the same game. Have to go out there and do my thing.”

He allowed five earned runs on eight hits. He walked three and struck out five in just four innings pitched.

Paxton struggled to put away hitters. The Astros fouled off 26 balls, 14 when he had two strikes against them. In 95 pitches, he had 60 for strikes. He wasn’t fooling anyone, he got just 13 called strikes and eight swings and misses.

James Paxton. (Nick Wass/AP)

But it wasn’t just the fact that the Astros were anticipating his knuckle curveball.

“I was talking to Carlos Beltran a little bit, he was in here, and he showed me some video and he said, ‘Look at these takes, look at this swing. They wouldn’t be making these swings or these takes if they didn’t know what was coming,’” Paxton said. “That being said, I also didn’t throw the ball very well. I was over the middle of the plate too much even when there were guys not on second base, so I need to be better at that as well.”

In fact, the Astros did no damage with runners on second base. Jose Altuve hit two solo homers off Paxton. Yuli Gurriel hit an RBI-triple and Carlos Correa hit an RBI-double both with a man on first. The Astros went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild said that the tipping wasn’t a huge factor in Wednesday’s loss.

“That has been addressed already and fixed,” Rothschild said. “He just wasn’t really sharp. They fouled off a lot of pitches. They made him work hard.”